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The 11 Best Breweries to Visit in Michigan
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Ten years ago, my partner and I packed up our Volkswagen Tiguan (named Manuel) and left Chicago for the big lights of New York City. It was our first big move since graduating from college, and in many ways, it became one of the most pivotal changes of our lives. We’d both quit our jobs and planned to take the next week, casually cruising through both the U.S. and Canada on our way to our new home. Our first stop? Michigan. And I had one place on my mind to stop: Bell’s Brewery.
In 2016, the craft beer industry in America looked very different—line culture still dominated releases, beer festivals were still cool, and this thing called hazy IPA was on its way to a country-wide phenomenon. I hadn’t yet even heard the words “Hop Culture” and was still relatively new to craft beer. But I certainly knew about Bell’s
Considered one of the most iconic breweries in the entire country, Bell’s Brewery seemed like a no-brainer pit stop while in the Wolverine State.
Returning to Michigan today, I’d probably plan my trip a little differently.
According to the Brewers Association Craft Beer Sales & Production Statistics from 2024, Michigan has 420 craft breweries, ranking ninth in the entire country. Cities like Grand Rapids once held the title “Beer City USA,” but now, you have incredible breweries all over the state, from Ann Arbor in the southeast to Petoskey up north and everywhere in between.
Which is why you’ll find some top meaderies sharing this list with mixed-fermentation mavens, sour-beer sensations, hoppy ale aficionados, and, of course, that aforementioned icon.
Look, Michigan isn’t exactly a small state, but we’re limiting this list to just the top eleven. You may disagree with some of our picks, and you probably have your own opinions about exactly which breweries should top this list. That’s great! Feel free to drop us a DM @hopculturemag and let us know about your favorite. Who knows? We may even add it to the list!
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Hop Culture’s Best Breweries to Visit in Michigan
Bell’s Brewery
355 E Kalamazoo Ave, Kalamazoo, MI 49007 | (269) 382-2332
Photography courtesy of Bell’s Brewery
One of the most revered breweries in the country, Bell’s Brewery started with founder Larry Bell homebrewing out of a fifteen-gallon soup pot. While working in a bakery, Bell began to apply what he learned about yeast and dough to beer. As he started to bring his basement-brewed creations to parties around town and share samples out of the shop, people craved more. In 1983, with $200 his mother gave him on his birthday, Bell set up a homebrew shop in extra space in the bakery where he worked in Downtown Kalamazoo. Two years later, he began selling his own beer commercially.
Over the next three-plus decades, Bell would create some of the country’s most essential beers. Like Bell’s Oberon, the beer that signifies spring and American wheat beer. Or Hopslam Ale, a massively dry-hopped double IPA with six different hops. Or, of course, the all-Centennial IPA Bell’s Two Hearted Ale, crowned the “Best Beer in America” in a survey conducted by Zymurgy Magazine for four years in a row. The survey asks members to choose up to five of their favorite commercial beers in the U.S. Russian River Brewing Company’s Pliny the Elder took top marks for many years. But in 2017, Two Hearted bumped off Pliny the Elder for the title of Best Beer in America.
And since then, Bell’s hasn’t looked back.
During my first visit to the Bell’s Eccentric Cafe on that cross-country road trip, I remember drinking in the back garden full of whimsical sculptures, content, happy, and soaking in the good vibes.
Pay your respects here to start your drinking adventures in Michigan.
Wax Wings Brewing Company
3480 Gull Rd, Kalamazoo, MI 49048 | (269) 459-9494
If Bell’s represents the old guard of breweries in Michigan, then Wax Wings certainly signifies the next generation.
The brewery didn’t exist when I first rolled through Kalamazoo in 2016, but I wish it had.
Wax Wings Co-Founders and childhood friends Jordan Fletcher and Rob Hopkins opened the brewery a couple of years later.
Hopkins fell in love with hazy, hoppy ales while living in Boston. When the homebrewer finally brewed what he deemed to be a decent NEIPA, he decided to take a leap of faith back home.
Located in a strip mall in Kalamazoo, Wax Wings gets its name from the Greek mythology of Icarus, the young winged man who hubrisfully flies a little too close to the sun. From what we’ve heard, Wax Wings has only soared over the last seven years (without clipping any wings, we might add).
Whether they’re making a bottom-fermenting beer that pays homage to its hometown—Kalamazoo’s Finest—or the top-fermenting ales they originally fell in love with, like the house Pulled Into Nazareth hazy, Wax Wings has risen to the ranks of top breweries in Michigan.
On Untappd, the brewery sits at the third-highest spot in the state, with an impeccable 4.24 rating from 444 beers.
HOMES Brewery
2321 Jackson Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48103 | (734) 954-6637
Photography courtesy of HOMES Brewery
An acronym for the Midwest’s Great Lakes—Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior—HOMES Brewery has indeed made its mark as one of the greatest breweries in Michigan.
And we’re not the only ones who think so.
Ranked as the fourth-highest-rated brewery in Michigan, based on data from Untappd, HOMES also holds a top spot for its popular smoothie seltzer brand called Smooj.
With 284k ratings, HOMES holds a very impressive 4.22 ranking from over 400 beers, many of which focus on either the hoppy or sour style.
For instance, HYDRA OF THE DEPTHS and DEEP DEPTHS (strawberry, banana, tangerine, marshmallow), a collab with the aforementioned Wax Wings—both of which made Untappd’s list of All-Time Top-Rated Smoothie/Pastry Sours.
On the hoppy side, we recommend the highly rated SAME SAME DIFFERENT, a hazy with Mosaic, Simcoe, and Citra hops.
Don’t sleep on the food here either. HOMES brewpub in Ann Arbor serves great drinking food with pan-Asian influence. Think togarashi wings, kimchi fries, and a bulgogi burrito.
Schramm’s Mead
914 Livernois St, Ferndale, MI 48220
Founded by Ken Schramm, a prolific meadmaker who helped start the nation’s mead-specific competition, Mazer Cup, Schramm’s Mead isn’t just one of the best meaderies in Michigan; it’s one of the top in the country.
Schramm literally wrote the book on mead, so his decades of expertise and experience translate brilliantly into his own spot (which, for the record, he resisted opening for many years).
Schramm produces meads that focus heavily on local produce and ingredients. For instance, The Statement, a balaton cherry mead made with Traverse City balaton cherries. Or Raspberry, which, as it sounds, is made from whole Michigan raspberries.
On Untappd, Schramm holds an almost undisputable 4.52 rating, cementing its spot as the top fermented beverage producer in all of Michigan.
Elder Piper Beer & Cider
923 Baxter St, Petoskey, MI 49770
Photography courtesy of Kyler Phillips
We first met Elder Piper Beer & Cider Co-Founder and Creative Director Eeva Redmond when she worked as the Communications Manager at Highland Brewing. We were super excited when the Certified Cicerone let us know she left Asheville to return to her hometown of Petoskey, MI, planning to open her own brewery with her husband.
During the year, she kept in touch, sending us some of her favorite beers they’re making on the idyllic shores of Little Traverse Bay.
The Beach Grass Helles impressed us enough to name it one of our “Top 12 Beers We Drank in August.”
The beer pours a medium-clear gold and drinks with a great body. We immediately pulled out notes of sweet, fresh corn and homey brown rice cooking in our kitchen. Everything finishes with a snappy bite. Overall, we found this beer super well balanced, like just the right amount of salt added to a dish.
And it’s why we also named this brewery to our list of the “17 Best Breweries to Watch in 2025.”
Arvon Brewing Co.
1006 Division Ave S., Grand Rapids, MI 49507 | (616) 340-9372
Photography courtesy of Arvon Brewing Co.
We had to include a brewery dedicated to the uber popular hazies and intensely fruited sours. Arvon Brewing nails both of those styles with beers like Little Wookiee, a West Coast IPA with Columbus, Simcoe, and Citra Hops.
And don’t miss the brewery’s “Sour Social,” a party celebrating all things cheek-puckering, releasing a new kettle sour every couple of hours.
Currently, Arvon keeps its distribution limited. So if you’re in town, this might be your only opportunity to try their beer!
Someday Brewing
20746 Mack Ave, Grosse Pointe Woods, MI 48236
Focusing on small-batch ales, stouts, lagers, and fruited and traditional meads, Someday Brewing in Grosse Pointe, MI, may be small in size but packs a punch with its fermentations.
The nanobrewery only has a few tables up for grabs and no kitchen, but this is the kind of place you go strictly for the drinks.
Like the wildly popular Out of the Woods, a 4.06 Untappd-rated Midwest-style IPA with Simcoe and Centennial hops. Or Rally Cap, a crisp, clean lager that we can best describe as a baseball beer.
For something a little more special, try Black Tie Affair – Vanilla, aged in Wild Turkey Rye barrels and conditioned on vanilla beans. Or Always, a black currant mead with orange blossom honey.
You might tell yourself you’ll get to this brewery someday. We’re telling you to get to someday…today.
Speciation Artisan Ales
928 Wealthy St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506 | (616) 666-6783
Photography courtesy of Speciation Artisan Ales
The glorious Speciation Artisan Ales consistently experiments with mixed and spontaneous fermentation. Meaning these wildly fermented beers offer a funky kick by taking advantage of local Michigan flora and fauna.
Take the brewery’s extremely popular The Laurentian Series, a round of spontaneously fermented beers left to cool by each of the Great Lakes. But currently, you’ll find on the tap list beers like Blueberry Incipient (2023), a foeder-aged sour ale with blueberries, where a portion of every year’s Incipient ends up in that same oak barrel foeder. And Solmate, a wheat ale with dandelion and sumac.
In the past, Speciation’s Genetic Drift farmhouse ale made our list of the best honey beers for its unique balance of funkiness, sweetness, and tartness.
A focus on Michigan-grown ingredients means Speciation lets the natural elements take the wheel. Named one of our Top 7 Craft Breweries in the Midwest, Speciation should one hundred percent top your list of breweries to visit in Michigan.
Transient Artisan Ales
4229 Lake St, Bridgman, MI 49106
Photography courtesy of Hop Culture
If we had to describe Transient Artisanal Ales in one word, we’d use this one: extraordinary.
Extraordinary because this modern farmhouse specialist started as a one-man nomadic operation.
Extraordinary because Transient Brewmaster and Founder Chris Betts quickly developed a cult-like following for his coveted, often elusive, creations.
In 2016, the itinerant brewing Betts finally settled down in Transient’s current home in Bridgman, MI, where he constantly keeps things rotating and fresh.
Extraordinary because you might see a wild fermented saison or a three-year-blended imperial breakfast stout with maple syrup.
Currently, you’ll find things on the tap list like a Mexican-style lager, helles aged in oak foeder, Cali-style pilsner, Midwest-style IPA, and a sour ale fashioned after a peach cobbler. Oh, and there’s a barleywine, too.
Really, you don’t have to worry, though. Whatever you order, just know that it’s going to be…extraordinary.
Ferndale Project
567 Livernois, Ferndale, MI 48220 | (248) 906-3244
Here’s a success story for you: Ferndale Project in the eponymous northern neighborhood of Detroit opened on Feb. 22, 2020. A few weeks later, a global pandemic shut down much of the world. But despite the less-than-fortuitous timing, Ferndale Project found ways to survive.
An experimental arm of the well-established Eastern Market Brewing Company, Ferndale Project specializes in sours, hazies, and more.
The “and more” part is essential here.
Ferndale Project doesn’t just want to be an experimental brewery; they want to be a hub for the community, an extension of the company’s motto for community, camaraderie, and craft.
Events abound at this colorful cafe, from book clubs in partnership with the Ferndale Public Library to euchre tournaments, ‘80s parties, and bluegrass brunches.
All of this hard work has landed Ferndale Project in Untappd’s top ten highest-rated breweries in Michigan.
Feels like a success story to us!
Lost Art Brewhouse
3393 Remembrance Rd NW, Walker, MI 49534 | (616) 805-4768
Another nanobrewery of note, Lost Art Brewhouse brings world-class small-batch beer to Western Michigan.
You’ll find a little bit of everything in this almost roaring-’20s-esque cinematic brewhouse, including hazies like Dune Climber, which the brewery calls “summertime in a can,” an American premium lager brewed with hand-selected Michigan Crystal hops, and a barrel-aged series (called Roaring ‘20s) that falls into the more extreme category.
About The Author
Grace Lee-Weitz
Currently Drinking:
Fort Point Beer Co. KSA
Grace is the Senior Content Editor for Hop Culture and Untappd. She also organizes and produces the largest weeklong women, femme-identifying, and non-binary folx in craft beer festival in the country, Beers With(out) Beards, and the first-ever festival celebrating the colorful, vibrant voices in the queer community in craft beer, Queer Beer. An avid craft beer nerd Grace always found a way to work with beer. After graduating with a journalism degree from Northwestern University, she attended culinary school before working in restaurant management. She moonlighted as a brand ambassador at 3 Sheeps Brewing Co. on the weekends before moving into the beer industry full-time as an account coordinator at 5 Rabbit Cerveceria. Grace holds her Masters degree in the Food Studies program at NYU.